When Darkness Makes Its Move
by cutepony
Summary: An unlikely team of fourteen teenagers, Angel and Spike on a mission to save the world from crazed mortals and fierce demons. My first fan fic, please R&R.
1. Appropriateness

Disclaimer: As much as I wish they did Angel and Spike do not belong to me. Any other characters from Angel or Buffy the Vampire Slayer do not belong to me either they belong to Joss Whedon, the original creator of the shows. Any other characters featuring in this fan fiction are mine, although some of the monsters and creepy things that go bump in the night are also Joss's (in actual fact most of them are his wonderful creations). I just put what blab was in my head down with his characters to help me.

Chapter 1: Appropriateness

It was quarter past nine at the Divino mansion on a Saturday night and an argument had broken out among three of the current residents, while most of the other occupants either ran for cover or watched intrigued, four sat on the floor ignoring the racket behind them. Zev, Spike, Ena and Bren refused to let themselves be distracted by their friends show; they were in the middle of a game of Crash Bandicoot. Taft had decided on the worst of times to pick a fight with Della and Lani (as usual), he hadn't meant for it to turn out this way (he never did) it just had.

"What are they going on about now?" Ena asked her companions.

"Mehonaah," Bren answered in her own language that few understood, luckily her twin was one of them or she might have called the nut house.

"Something about the heater in the bathroom and the hairdryer, Bren you've been running into that same wall for the last five minutes." Zev said.

"So I have all right, about face, run into that wall there," the blonde said to her player thingiemadosit as she called it.

"A ninety degree turn might work better to get you started you know," Spike put in but at the glare he got from her he quickly added, "or you could try going backwards."

"Nah, that always comes up with annoying reminders that tell me I'm going in the wrong direction, as if I don't know that. Fine be like that, go that way, see if I care!" her player had turned and started running in the right direction for a change.

"Bren, you're the one controlling her, you must've stopped turning too early for what you had in mind," Ena's voice was calm as she soothed her twin's anger at the video game.

"Oh," Bren looked down at her controller and then back at the screen, "So I did, mef, oh well as long as I'm going in the right direction I may as well not stop to make the pathetic creature lose brain cells."

"Hate to break it to you pet, but I don't think your bandicoot has a brain," Spike said.

"How do you figure?" Bren was being difficult again, nobody minded it was usually funny the things that she came up with.

"It's actually obeying you, how much brains can it have?" Spike's comment didn't bother Bren in the least.

"Well you've followed my orders before, mister I'm smarter than your bandicoot," Bren's comeback was surprisingly good.

"That was uncalled for little missy," Spike countered with mock indignation in his voice.

"Technically Spike, it was called for," Zev rejoined the conversation.

"Oh?" Spike answered, "Who called for it, then?"

"Hello-o, Captain Obvious? I called for it Dummkopf!" Bren was getting bored of the current conversation and decided that the video game needed a little sprucing up. She picked up explosives and as soon as she got within firing distance of anything that moved she blasted it before committing suicide by jumping into the lava at the side of the trail. Ena shook her head, amused by her twin's antics.

"What was that for?" Spike asked Bren, "You killed my bandicoot too."

"Good," Bren said as she stretched back and leaned against the couch, "Right, I'm gonna go separate those three before they rip each other to shreds."

"Over a heater and a hairdryer? Is that really appropriate?" Zev had a good point.

"Well whether it's appropriate or not they're going to hurt each other sooner or later if someone doesn't stop it now, I'd rather they didn't hurt each other," Bren stood up on the couch and was just jumping off it when Della got bored of playing nice and hurled her fist at Taft, this fist was closely followed by Lani's elbow.

At that moment Nab and Blaze came down the stairs to see Della and Lani using Taft for a punching bag, Taft had been caught off guard and was having trouble regaining control of the situation. Blaze looked at Bren standing behind the couch, his little sister shrugged; she didn't know why they were doing this. He rolled his eyes and waded into the three rolling bodies, pulling Della out by the shoulder's, Bren followed suit hauling Lani to her feet and holding the demi-goddess back by her elbows. Taft rolled over onto his back and accepted Nab's hand up; Nab took a clean tissue from one of his pockets and gave it to Taft to get rid of the blood at his mouth.

"Anyone care to tell me what started that?" Blaze sounded ticked off.

"Something to do with a heater and a hairdryer," Zev said from where he now knelt looking over the back of the couch.

"Thank you Zev, anything else I need to know?" Blaze asked the teenager.

Zev shrugged, "I was playing Crash Bandicoot with Spike, Ena and Bren until things got a little more serious."

"Anyone who wasn't playing Crash Bandicoot want to contribute?" Blaze had mastered his anger now and was dealing with the situation in his usual manner.

"None of us was paying them any attention until they started yelling and then we could hardly catch a word," Kitty's innocent face told that she wasn't lying.

"Well, in future I don't want you fighting over hair dryers and heaters, there are civilized ways of dealing with problems, I'm sure you can find one." Blaze made it clear that the subject was closed before he beckoned for Bren and Ena to follow him back up the stairs. The twins looked at each other and shrugged before they followed their older brother.

Blaze led them up to his room and gestured for them to enter; he followed shutting the door behind him. Both of his younger sisters stared at him, the same questioning look in their eyes. As if that wasn't freaky enough they both tilted their heads to the same side in perfect unison.

"Ok, you two really have got to stop that, you have no idea how scary it is." Blaze told his sisters.

"Stop doing what?" Ena questioned him.

Blaze rolled his eyes, "Doing the same thing at the same time, it gives me the shivers." He punctuated this with a small shiver, the twins giggled in the same way, "See? There you go again."

"Sorry, but what was it that you wanted us up here for?" Bren asked getting down to business.

"Huh? Oh, right, that. Find yourselves a seat; somewhere in this mess," Blaze looked around his room as his sisters sat on his bed, "We're going to Mexico."

"Woo-hoo," Ena yelled.

"Wait just a minute, where in Mexico?" Bren wasn't sounding as thrilled about this as Blaze had expected.

"Nogales, Mexico, it's just over the border from it's counterpart in Arizona, why?" Blaze was confused by Bren's reaction, "I thought you'd like to come, I mean sure it's work but it'd be more of a working holiday."

"You've never been to Nogales, Mexico before, have you?" Bren wasn't eager to tell Blaze why she'd reacted that way.

"No, have you?" Blaze was curious.

Bren nodded, "Mmhhm, you could've called that a working holiday too, a different kind of work on a holiday from Mara."

Ena looked at her twin, "You mean that's where you got the money to buy this place?"

Bren looked uncomfortable, "Some of it."

"So where did you work? Fast food place, clothing shop, a diner? Give me a hint." Blaze pressed his sister for more information.

"Come with me," Bren said, looking downcast.

She led her siblings up the hall to the room that she shared with Ena, shut the door behind them and disappeared into her walk-in wardrobe. When she emerged, Bren received a "Wow," from her twin and Blaze just stood his face showing disbelief. She was fully clothed in black leather, her tank-top ended two ribs below her pushed-up breasts, the mini-skirt was revealing to say the least, starting on her hips and ending a short way down her thighs. This was finished with heeled boots that had steel capped toes and went to just below her knees.

"Can you guess now?" Bren asked her brother.

"You were a prostitute?" Blaze was having trouble comprehending this.

"Stripper, I was a stripper. I worked in the biggest strip club in Nogales, it was good pay and I swear that is the only reason that I worked there. I'm certainly not proud of that particular part of my past."

"How much did they pay you?" Blaze was taken aback by his sister's previous career.

"$900 on the nights I was on stage, $500 on the nights that I came in, they got 75 of all the profits that I made off stage, I got to keep the tips," Bren looked down and hugged herself.

"How long did you work there?" Blaze asked.

"When you called me and told me that Ena was in hospital and you two needed to get out of there soon then I got desperate and hitch hiked there. I worked for about three weeks, $900 every second night that's," Bren paused thinking, "$9900, then there was the nightly fee on top of that, $10500, $1000 of tips in the whole time that I was there and $3000 for what I did. All up it's $24400."

"That's a lot of money for three weeks of work," Ena admitted, "how much did this place cost?"

"$50000, without the renovations to the house and stables and all of that extra work, that added another $25000 to the place," Bren fidgeted.

"So that job paid for half of the property?" Blaze wasn't happy about this.

"Like I said Blaze, I'm not proud of that job and if I hadn't thought that we'd needed so much so soon then I wouldn't have gotten it," Bren meant what she said but it didn't stop Blaze from being angry at her.

"So it's my fault for rushing you?" Blaze's temper was rising.

"No, I mean…" Bren's hurt showed in her face, Ena noticed and shooed Blaze from the room to prevent him from hurting Bren's feelings any more.

"If I go back there then I'll have to face that part of my past Ena, I don't want to do that yet, I can't," Bren was upset about Blaze's reaction and that was what she'd been scared of.

"I know, Bren, I don't blame either of you, he'll cool off eventually, just give him a bit of time," Ena hugged her twin, "everything'll be fine, you'll see."

"But Ena, for this particular project we'll need information, where else to get it but the main strip club, that means I'm going back to work there and I don't want to," Bren had been holding back her tears but now she could no longer hold them, she gave in and buried her face in Ena's shoulder.


	2. Past Meets Present

Disclaimer: Nothing has changed since my last chapter, I still don't own any characters from Angel or Buffy, meaning that Angel and Spike in particular are not mine (much to my disappointment). Unipegs, and any characters not featuring in the TV shows do belong to me. thanks to TK who helped me navigate the difficulties of this site with my extreme blondedness and also helped me perfect my story and stopped me from producing a Mary-sue. Enjoy the chappie. Please R&R!

Chapter 2: Past Meets Present

Angel had told everyone else of the working holiday, they would leave in two days for Mexico. There was an overload of vampires in the area and they were slaughtering the many homeless and those foolish enough to holiday alone in the area. Normally this was Buffy's area but she had problems of her own in Sunnydale and wouldn't be able to get there for a few weeks at least.

After being told of the trip to Mexico Zev made his way up to Bren's room, the door was shut so he knocked.

There were footsteps approaching the door followed by a snuffly, "Who is it?" Zev frowned, what was wrong with Bren.

"It's Zev," he answered, "Can I come in?"

Bren opened the door enough to let her head out; she looked both ways up the hall before she nodded. Bren stood back, pulling the door with her, Zev walked into the room turning around to look at his girlfriend as he did so; she looked like she'd been crying.

"What's wrong? Angel told us that Blaze had told you and Ena, don't you want to go to Mexico?"

"Of course I want to go to Mexico," Bren sniffed again, "It's just the particular place in Mexico that we're going to happens to be where I worked at the strip club."

"Oh, so you told Blaze about that did you?"

Bren nodded and looked away.

"I take it that he wasn't happy about it, he'll get over it. Just give him a bit of time to get used to the fact that you were a stripper, he'll forgive you."

"I did it for him and he acts like I'm poison that'll kill him if he comes near me with a ten foot pole," Bren muttered to the floor.

"Would it help if I talked to him?"

"No, that'd put you in his bad books, standing up for his stripper sister," Bren was getting close to tears again.

"Hey, none of that now, I'll have a word with Angel about it and see what he can do. He is at the head of this project so maybe he can talk some sense into Blaze."

"You'd do that? What if it doesn't work?"

"If, and I say if, it doesn't work then at least we'll have tried, now wipe away those tears and we'll go down stairs and get some Milo."

Bren sniffled and smiled at Zev, Zev smiled back at her his grey eyes showing that he meant everything that he'd said.

--

When they got down stairs Seth was sitting on the sofa watching the late news, Angel was talking on the phone and Spike and Ena were sitting at the kitchen table reading the comics that Seth had brought back for them. Zev led Bren into the kitchen where she started to make Milo immediately, moving half on autopilot, Zev leaned against the bench as he waited for the jug to finish boiling. Seth looked away from the TV and spotted Bren in the kitchen, he leapt easily off the couch and made his way around the various obstacles in the living room and kitchen before he stopped, resting his elbows on the bench beside her.

"Can I have one?" he asked looking at the mugs in front of Bren, "You're Milo always seems to turn out better than mine does."

Bren grinned and took out an extra mug, "Who's Angel on the phone to?"

Seth looked over at the soulful vampire speaking in Spanish to the phone, "He's trying to organize accommodation for our stay and a little longer after to allow for sun tanning, not having much luck though."

She rolled her eyes and took her mug, now filled with hot Milo over to where Angel stood with the phone. She took the receiver from him and spoke matter-of-factly into it in perfect Spanish ignoring Angel's noise of annoyance. Everyone looked up from what they were doing and looked at her as she spoke to the receptionist. She paused and nodded, speaking a few more words of Spanish into the phone, saying Gracias and hanging up.

"All done," Bren smiled at Angel and returned to the kitchen to read the comics over Ena's shoulder.

Seth emerged from behind the bench with his own hot Milo and joined Angel at the dinner table, "She never ceases to amaze me," he stated easily to Angel.

"How come she got the rooms first try?" Angel asked dumbfounded, "I've been trying to get somewhere at that hotel all night."

"Well that's just Bren for you isn't it?" Seth replied sitting down in the chair beside Angel.

Zev left the kitchen carrying his Milo and one for Angel, Angel thanked him and cleared a space on the table for his mug.

"You know, this project isn't exactly going to work wonders on her relationship with Blaze?" Zev said as he too sat down beside Angel.

"How so?" Angel asked lifting his mug and taking a sip, "This is good."

"It's always good," Seth commented.

"You know how she used to work in the big strip club there?" Zev asked.

Angel nodded, "Well she hadn't told Blaze about it before tonight, and she told him and he got angry at her for taking the job."

"But she only took it to get him and Ena away from that psycho mother of theirs," Angel said.

"I know, and Bren told him but then he got angry at her and said that she was trying to blame him for it." Zev told him.

Angel thought this over, "I'll have a word to him about it, I was kind of hoping Bren could get us a bit of information from there."

"You'd have to ask her about that first Angel, she didn't like being a stripper, she only took the job because it paid well," Zev said gravely to his friend.

"Of course, I wouldn't force her to do it but it would be good if she did take back the job for a bit," Angel explained.

They sat for a while in silence, Ena, Bren and Spike reading their comics while Zev, Angel and Seth sat each buried in their own private thoughts. After fifteen minutes of this rare silence Bren and Ena excused themselves, saying goodnight to their friends. Bren approached Zev and dropped a kiss on the top of his head before she ruffled his hair, in answer to this Zev took the hand that ruffled his hair and kissed it.

Seth waited until the girls footsteps had faded before he spoke, "You lucky bugger."

Zev grinned and shook his head. He knew that.

--

Two days later and all sixteen of them sat in their seats on the plane; the morning had been hectic what with sixteen people all trying to use the bathroom at the same time. Eventually they'd gotten past all of the dilemmas and headed for the airport.

When they'd finally boarded and taken their seats they took up two rows of seats in the large Boeing 747 that they were flying in. Ena was in the back left with a window seat and Bren was sitting beside her with Zev on the isle seat, Nab was across the isle with Taft next to him, Blaze, Asa and Darla were sitting across that isle. Then there was the next row which held all of the others, Spike, Seth and Angel sat in front of Bren, Ena and Zev, then there was Clarissa and Kitty in front of Taft and Nab and finally Trixie, Della and Lani at the far front. It had taken long enough to get this seating planned by the method of he's not going to rip her apart but she might rip the other one to shreds. This was no happy family; there were tender spots all over the place that could take years to work around. Until that happened Angel was taking no risks when it came to his crew.

When the flight ended most of the crew stood up as fast as they possibly could and hit their heads on the luggage holds above them. Bren and Ena giggled as Zev, Angel, Spike and Seth all made the same mistake and immediately ducked back down, rubbing their heads. Looking across the plane, Darla and Trixie were having the same amusing points of view.

"Ha ha," Zev said amused by the accidents in no way, "Just wait till you start growing."

Bren's reply was full of high pitched giggles, "I've started and finished that process, in primary school, same with Ena."

"Oh goody, I'll be able to tease you about that for a lot longer then, will I pet?" Spike was showing his usual attitude to such conversations.

"You may tease all you like Spikey boy, it won't stop me seeing positive things to dainty appearances," Bren had made a comeback to which Spike had not the wit to answer. She smiled at his silence.

By the time that they got to their hotel just outside Nogales, it was 7:00 and most of them were ready to settle down. Angel had different ideas.

"I want everyone to unpack and meet back here in half an hour for the night's schedule," was the command that they got the moment that they got in.

"That'd better be the bed schedule," someone muttered.

"Don't be stupid," Bren declared, "The night is just getting started."

"Joy," was the sarcastic reply to this.

The plan for that night was to get as much started as they could, Bren would take Lani, Darla and Kitty with her to the strip club to see if there were any job openings (Bren guaranteed there would be). While they were doing this Angel, Blaze, Nab and Spike would scout the area, Della, Ena, Asa and Taft would see what they could find in the other clubs and on the streets and Seth would be setting up base with the help of those left behind.

--

"So tell me again why it's us who have to go to this big strip club?" Lani was having an attitude problem.

"Because, one you didn't **have** to, two you volunteered and three your one of the more likely candidates for the job," Bren stated simply, she wasn't in the mood for Lani's antics right now. Why couldn't Lani be more like Darla and Kitty and accept her part of the project? "Now, when we get in there don't speak to the boss or staff unless they speak to you, let me do the talking first and he'll get to you."

"Why do you get to speak to him without being spoken to?" Lani was really getting annoying.

"Because I'm the one who had a job here before and I'm the one that attracted the big crowds for those three weeks," Bren was edgy; she didn't like this part of the project, "He knows me and my reputation and if he hears that I've hand-picked you three, he'll know that I did it for a reason. I helped him find a replacement for me so he knows that I can see a good stripper when I need to."

Kitty questioned their current part for the first time, "What if he doesn't want to get more strippers?"

Bren brushed the query aside easily, "He's always looking for more little pretties to add to his collection, and his motto is that you can never have enough strippers."

They got to the door and the ginger, purple and ash blonde fell in line behind their golden haired 'leader'. Bren led them easily through the crowds of the club to the boss's office; she knocked on the door and waited for an answer. The door opened to reveal a man in his early thirties, well-muscled and tall. He looked down and saw Bren standing there in front of him, her hair pulled back into piggy-tails and dressed in one of her many outfits.

The man smiled at her and spread his arms wide, "Bren you cheeky little scrubber, I haven't seen you around here in yonks and I see that you've brought some friends with you."

Bren gave him the hug that he'd asked for and gave him a smile, "Your English has improved since I left, anyway, I was passing through the area when I thought I could use some money, me and my friends are on a working holiday, sort of."

"I see, well step into my office and we'll see what we can do for you," he stood back to let the four girls past surveying each one with an expert eye as they did so, he shut the door behind them, "your eye for other streetwalkers is still as good as it used to be. How good are they when it gets past first impressions though?"

"I think you'll find they're quite erotic when you try them out," Bren said as she leaned easily back against the desk, a perfect picture of charming seductiveness, "Go ahead, take them for a test run. Question them, do what you like. You're the boss Pancho, my feather."

He smiled at her, "You haven't lost any of your captivating abilities I see, and you definitely have your job back. Now what's your name Ginger?"

"Kitty," Bren's friend answered in a purring murmur.

"That's very good," Pancho was clearly impressed, "How far are you willing to go with this job?"

Kitty looked at Bren for a moment and Bren gestured herself, "As far as Bren goes, no further."

"Very well, what about you Blondie? What's your name and how far are you willing to go?"

Darla intensified her answer by brushing her small body gently around Pancho and whispering her answer in his ear, "My name is Darla and I'll go as far as I'm asked."

Bren was impressed by Darla's forwardness and slightly unsettled by the answer to Pancho's second question, but she didn't step in, Pancho liked what Darla had said and done, that was three of them in the job. Lani was the only one left and Bren prayed that she'd gotten over the attitude.

Pancho turned his attention to Lani and didn't say anything but used his eyes to ask.

Lani answered by stepping easily up to him, she was only an inch shorter but he didn't stop her, she ran a delicate hand down over his shoulder and chest as she murmured provocatively to him, "I'm Lani and I'll go as far as you ask me to," She made eye contact with him and stepped back.

Bren expelled the breath that she'd been holding for so long, he wouldn't refuse any of them.

Pancho turned his eyes on her and when he spoke it was to her alone, "I trust you to teach them all what they need to know, help them choose clothes appropriate for the job, you know where the wardrobe is, teach them how to put on make-up properly if they don't already know and they can start tomorrow. You may start tonight if you wish; I'll put out the word that you're performing every second night from tomorrow. You know how things work around here."

Bren nodded and moved away from his desk, "As you please, your wish is my command." With this final remark she led her friends from the room to the massive closet at the back of the club.

When they got inside Bren shut the door behind her, shutting of most of the noise with it. Then she turned to face her friends and smiled.

"You did really well, now come and we'll see about your outfits. Just so you know it'll mean that you only get about half of your first pay check to pay for the clothes," Bren turned away from them at this and immediately set to work finding clothing that highlighted their best features, all of the clothing articles had one thing in common, they were each as skimpy as the next.


	3. Is This Heaven or Hell

Disclaimer: Same as always, I don't own any characters from Angel or Buffy. Anyone who you haven't heard of is most likely mine. Please R&R. Enjoy!

Chapter 3: Is This Heaven or Hell?

Spike and Blaze studied their current surroundings with serious eyes that were tiring of the views.

"I don't know how your sister could've found her way around here when she was only fourteen, mate," Spike stated as he held the piece of paper that Blaze was using to copy the surroundings magically onto.

"Yeah, well Bren's done a lot of things that nobody knew she could do," Blaze was still touchy when it came to his little sister, "She's not what or who I thought she was, now can I please finish this without bringing her into it?"

"Sure, it's just that you're mighty lucky to have a sister who'd actually go all the way to Mexico and put her body on the line, literally, just to get money to spring you from a prison, if that's what you'd call it," Spike had a good point but at the moment Blaze didn't want to admit it. "Her heart's in the right place is all I'm saying; don't push her away for it."

"Yeah, well maybe she should've told me about it first," Blaze said as he looked up.

"Maybe, but maybe she didn't want to tell you for a reason," Spike weighed his chances of getting a knuckle sandwich before he continued, "She was scared that this would happen or that you'd do something else that hurt just as bad. Notice that she's only ever done it when she feels that has to? When you needed the money for the house fast and when it's for a big project like this one. She wouldn't do this if she didn't feel that she had to."

"So you think that it's my fault too? How typical of you," Blaze's fury was building again.

"No, you're putting words in my mouth mate, if it is anyone's fault then last time it was your mother and this time it's Angel, Buffy and Who ever put the project on our to do list," Spike said in a calm tone, "I never even thought it was your fault. I'm ready to bet no one else does either, including Bren and Ena. You missed something on the map."

"What?"

"That tree over there and the shed behind it."

"Oh, thanks for pointing that out."

A breeze passed over where they were standing rustling the trees and bushes as it went, Blaze looked up from his mapping and studied their surroundings again but quickly lowered his head once more.

"No problem, but what's the cross for?"

"What cross?" Blaze asked not looking up from the map.

"The one that you just put on the map, right there," Spike pointed at a place on the paper that showed a bush with a cross on top of it.

"Dude, I think you've spent too long talking to yourself," Blaze looked up from the map that matched their surroundings exactly and looked meaningfully at the vampire, "I didn't put a cross on the map."

Spike looked from Blaze then down at the map again frowning, he'd finally latched on to what Blaze was doing, or at least some of it. He turned his head in different directions before finally coming to a conclusion.

"Sorry mate, my bad it's just the way you drew the leaves makes it look like there's a cross there," Spike had covered the situation well and Blaze relaxed slightly.

It took them another hour to finish mapping the other places that Angel had given them to cover and to get back to where they were supposedly meeting Angel and Nab. When they got there the other two had apparently just arrived as well so no one had kept anyone waiting.

As they had organized with the girls earlier the four of them made their way slowly into the main street of Nogales where the large strip club was positioned. They'd escorted Bren, Darla, Kitty and Lani to the strip club a few hours before and had arranged to pick them up when they were finished mapping out the area. From the outside the club looked reasonably respectable but once inside there was a true example of why one should never judge a book by its cover.

When they got to the main level of the club which was where Bren had said they would be the four males immediately began scanning the crowd for any of their female friends. Lani wouldn't be too hard to find, how many girls did you see running around with hair that shade of purple? But Lani was nowhere in sight and neither were any of the others. Angel led his companions through the crowd asking about the girls as he went; a few of the slightly older strippers pointed him to a door at the back of the room. Making his way towards it was a slow process, partly due to the heavy crowd and partly due to Spike's continuous halting or wandering off, each time this happened Angel sent Nab to pull Spike back to where he was supposed to be.

Blaze stuck close to Angel not quite knowing his reason for doing this but he didn't really mind about that right about now, he was still deciding whether this place was heaven or some alternate establishment of hell. True, there were a lot of pretty girls around and the fact that they wore minimal clothing helped to lighten a man's mood but this place had taken the sister that he'd thought he'd known. Ena had always been wild and unpredictable, he'd rarely known what she was doing and had left it to Bren (being her twin and all) to know about that. But he'd always considered Bren as the safe and cautious one, the one who he could depend on and be sure about who she was and who she was going to be, not the likely choice for a stripper. This club had proven him wrong and for that reason he despised it.

Angel came to a door at the back of the club, the three younger males following him halted in just enough time not to run into his back. He hesitated, unsure of what to do, should he open the door and go straight in or knock first? He opted for the latter and rapped his knuckles hard against the door to be sure he was heard. A moment later the door opened a crack and then Bren's head appeared from behind it, she looked over her guests before opening the door wide enough to admit them and quickly shutting it behind them.

"We weren't expecting you back quite this fast but no matter, things went faster here than I'd originally expected," Bren explained as she returned to what she'd been doing earlier, examining the available wardrobe, "The others will be out in a minute."

"Out of where?" Spike asked from directly behind her.

"The change room silly, this may be a strip club but that doesn't mean that we aren't entitled to some privacy behind the scenes," Bren let out a savage little kick to the back letting Spike know that he wasn't supposed to be looking over this stuff.

She caught him hard in the shins and he cursed quietly for letting his guard down around her.

"Can't you put him on a lead or something?" Bren asked Angel.

"I wish I could," The vampire with a soul replied, "But you see Spike isn't one to be put on a lead and keep it in one piece."

"You know I could fix that little problem. Bren said cheekily as she pulled an outfit off the rack and held it against her too thin body considering it, "Why don't you boys go out and have a little fun, see what you can get from the strippers out there and we'll get you when we're finished in here."

"With pleasure," Spike answered darting out of the door to where he was sure there were some pretty strippers waiting for him.

"You're sure?" Angel seemed uncertain about this, looking over at Blaze and Nab.

Angel definitely had no problems with asking a stripper for info while she gave him a lap dance; it was Nab and Blaze that worried him. Blaze in particular would hold a grudge against this club that wasn't likely to die anytime soon if ever. Who could blame him? Almost everything that he'd known of Bren had changed since she'd informed him of her past occupation, however temporary it had been. That was a wound that wasn't likely to heal and be forgotten too quickly.

Bren seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he was because she quickly added, "Or if you didn't want to do that you could stay in here and check out the pre-floor look. Take your pick, no one's gonna mind."

Nab and Blaze looked at each other, "Pre-floor?" Nab asked.

"Yeah, whatever," Blaze said, looking at his sister as she pulled out a pair of boots from the shoe rack.

"So it's pre-floor for you two, Angel? You going to keep an eye on Spike or check out the pre-floor action with Nab and Blaze?" Bren asked him.

"I think it might be a good idea to keep an eye on Spike, he's a trouble magnet," Angel answered.

"Okay, you do that and if you find a nice little stripper make sure you give her a tip, it's insulting not to," Bren said, "I would know."

"I'll keep that in mind," Angel said before disappearing behind the door.

A half hour later and Bren, Darla, Kitty and Lani emerged from the dressing room dressed in their latest wardrobe additions. Blaze and Nab walking in their wake weren't quite as noticeable but were still seen because they were with the new blood. Spike looked up from his stripper for a moment and saw the four girls, at this he let out a quiet whistle of admiration.

The stripper in his lap called out across the club in Spanish, "Hey Brenny, welcome back."

Bren looked over at her and simply smiled adding a polite nod; she'd known the girl from her last visit here, they'd been good friends and had kept in touch through e-mail until both girls had run out of time to do so. Now Bren made her way up to the boss's office, knocked and informed him that she and her girls were going home, introduced her brother and let him give her three friends an inspection from an adept opinion. After this she gathered up Angel and Spike, organized to catch up with her stripper friend on the internet and left.

On the way home the four girls received comments and hints from Spike letting them know his thoughts. Eventually Bren tired of this and informed him that she only did that kind of thing at the club or for people she felt were worthy of it, he wasn't one of them. Shortly after that she began to get cold, although it was mid-spring the temperature here as she'd known did get cold on some nights. Bren had thought to bring her coat but had decided against it before she'd left and now she regretted this, Blaze however seemed to be on his way to accepting her as she was and showed that he hadn't forgotten she was his responsibility by wrapping an arm around her.

With the scant clothing Bren now wore Angel didn't need to imagine why she was cold. Her other clothes had gone into a bag which now hung over her shoulder and she was wearing a different set of leather clothes. She had a halter neck on that had only two thin straps across her back and showed quite a lot of breast, two straps attached the front of the top to her mini-skirt criss-crossing just above her belly button. Angel could see why that was, when she moved her body the crossed straps moved with her flat stomach. She still had the same pair of boots on although the mini-skirt was a new one so that she could attach the skirt to the top.

At first the petite blonde looked slightly confused but she quickly relaxed seeing that at least for now there wasn't a catch. When Blaze removed his beanie and put it on her head it almost covered her eyes and both siblings laughed good-naturedly as Blaze pulled up the front a little.

Looking at the two of them reminded Angel of Spike and Dru's many arguments and the behavior that had ensued, although in this case he was sure things wouldn't go that far. Angel looked at the younger vampire as he watched Bren and Blaze from next to Darla.

Darla was another person who reminded him of his past as Angelus. It had been a blonde vampire named Darla who had first altered him and made him a vampire. They weren't the same that Darla had been dusted, but still they bore some resemblance to each other.

That was in his past, this was now and he knew that no matter how much he was reminded of his past as Angelus he was Angel now and there was no time like the present. Seize the day as they said in some movie or other that he'd seen with his friends a year or two ago. At any rate he was content now to be Angel and none of his friends minded his past unless it was necessary, they all had their imperfections and he was pleased to know that they wouldn't hold his hellish past against him, now or ever.


	4. Captain of the Peroxide

Disclaimer: Same as always, I don't own characters from Angel or Buffy, just my OC's. R & R please. Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Captainof thePeroxide

By the time that they got back to their hotel room Della, Ena, Asa and Taft had finished their scouting of other clubs and were back in the room where Seth, Zev, Clarissa and Trixie had set up base. It looked like things usually did when they went away on trips alike to their current one. Computers, gadgets and other do-da's that could be used for various different things on such projects covered almost every surface possible.

Those who were already inside their hotel room turned their heads as the other half of their contingent trooped through the door and settled on whatever surface was not yet covered by the high-tech equipment that Seth had brought with him. Zev and Bren immediately went to each other as if drawn by invisible magnets, they retreated to a table in the corner of the room where they began speaking to each other in hushed voices that not even the vampires could hear. The mapping party handed over the results of their nights work to Seth who would copy the maps out for others to use or just in case they lost one (which was bound to happen).

Once all of this post-expedition activity died down most of the crew retired to their respective beds, although some opted for pyjama parties on each others beds (Bren and Ena being the noisiest), resulting in pillow-fights. Eventually everyone quieted down and went to sleep, of course by this time it was almost three in the morning.

--

The next morning was a slow start for most of the occupants in their apartment; in fact it took three cups of coffee to get some of them awake let alone alert. When everyone was up and awake to a degree Angel called everyone to meet around the breakfast table to discuss the plan for that night seeing as there wasn't much that they could do at this stage in the daylight. Most of the crew was free to roam until about four that afternoon when they would start preparations for the night.

Seeing as the TV in their apartment had cable Ena and Bren immediately headed for that followed closely by any other potential couch potatoes, Angel disappeared to his room and most of the boys went to the lap tops.

Spike however seemed to have dropped of the face of the earth (in the opinions of all but the most tolerant, for the better) until he began hollering for goldilocks. Darla and Bren being the only blondes around other than Spike (and he clearly wasn't hollering for himself) looked at each other, groaned and went to see what the problem was with Ena and Asa following close behind.

Bren reached the bathroom first, after concluding that this was where Spike was, and when she did the little blonde paused for a moment before turning away from the door overcome by laughter.

Spike's annoyed reply to this followed instantaneously, "Laugh all you like you undersized tart, I'll just beat you to a bloody pulp for it," Spike paused before adding, "Later."

The other three looked around the corner to see what had Bren laughing so hard that she was crying and the moment that they saw what it was Ena and Darla joined her. Asa on the other hand simply shook his head smiling wickedly and returned to his life as a couch potato.

After regaining her usual composure, Bren returned to the bathroom door and studied Spike's predicament, "Okay Captain Peroxide, what did you do to it?" she asked as she looked over the damage to the vampire's hair.

"I didn't do anything!" Spike exclaimed in a voice of innocence.

From the look that Bren gave him she wasn't buying it, "Sure you didn't," She dragged the words out adding sarcasm for further effect.

"Well, I might've used a little of this," Said the Vampire holding up a bottle of black hair dye.

Bren took one look at the bottle before exclaiming, "Flaming hell Spike, can't you read? Not to be used with bleach. That's peroxide that you had in your hair so no wonder," Bren stopped herself and gestured his scalp with her hand, "What do you want me to do about it?"

"Well can you fix it?" Spike asked.

Bren gave a snort of derisive laughter before she turned serious and inspected the seriousness of the situation.

"I can try," she offered.

"It's a start," Spike replied with a sigh, "I'll take it."

Ten minutes later Spike's hair had been restored to its natural state so that he could choose to leave it natural, dye it or once again opt for peroxide. Spike chose to dye it or rather asked Bren to do so for him seeing as he wasn't having much luck with that today.

The time left until the preparation for that nights action passed quickly and before they knew it Bren had her three girls of choice dressed with their make-up done and all. Ena had helped with the make-up, being Bren's sister and originating in ancient Egypt the two knew their cosmetics.

Gathering around the kitchen table before setting off on the night's business Bren felt uneasy. This was bringing back unpleasant memories and there was nothing that she could do to stem the flood of past experiences rushing through her mind.

Looking across the table at her Blaze could see pain in her eyes, it was something that only he or Ena would be able to see, but there was nothing he could do to help her. Young as she was in her latest form Bren had so many memories and this trip he could see was bringing out the worst of them. He wanted desperately to comfort his little sister, to tell her that everything was fine and that this was how it was staying. But he couldn't, to tell her that would be a lie and he couldn't lie, not to her.

Blaze moved around the table and stood behind Bren, placing a surprisingly gentle hand on her shoulder. She flinched and tensed but when she realized who it was Bren relaxed, but only a little. She turned her head and looked straight into Blaze's face but he could see from the look in her eyes that it wasn't him she saw. Blaze saw in her eyes the pain and torment that had been brought upon them by his mother. Blaze also saw the fear that she was still out there free to harm them at will.

He took her into his arms and whispered gently in her ear, "She won't do that again, I won't let her do that to any of us or our friends, I promise."

At these words Bren seemed to snap out of her daze, "I know you won't," she hesitated before she added, "Big brother."

"Touching," Spike's voice was harsh to Bren's ears, so unlike to her brother's and friends voices.

Both Bren and Blaze ignored Spike; he was annoyed that it wasn't going to be him going into the strip club that night. Annoyed that Angel, Nab and Zev were going in and he was to be left with the street patrol.

"If you don't like what you're doing then why don't you say something about it?" Bren asked in a practical manner.

"Yeah Spike," Ena spoke up from next to Bren, Spike hadn't noticed her, "I'm sure someone wouldn't mind trading places, just ask Angel if it's allowed, you'll fit right in at the club."

"Because, if I do…" Spike's answer was cut off by the debriefing's start.

As it turned out Angel had decided to put Nab on street patrol in Spike's place without the talking to. As had happened the night before Bren, Darla, Kitty and Lani would be in the strip club, some of them would be scouting out other joints in addition to the street patrol. Seth would hold the fort with Clarissa to keep him company and in case any uninvited guests dropped by, while Angel, Spike and Zev made sure no one hurt their girls in the strip club.

After all of their companions had left Clarissa stood in the door way looking wistfully in the direction where they'd vanished from her sight.

"What's wrong whitey?" Seth asked from the depths of the apartment.

"Nothing's wrong, glove boy, it's just that I never know if any of them are going to come back in one piece and I hate waiting."

Seth joined her looking in the same direction for a moment before he closed the door, "They'll be back."

His voice was so certain but Clarissa knew from years of being his friend that he too wondered how many would return and how long it would be until one of them didn't.

--

When they neared the strip club Angel pulled the other six members of his contingent of the group into an alley. He shushed Spike's protests at having his trench coat rules violated by pointing out to them that it probably wasn't the best idea to enter the strip club all in one group. Of course it was understandable for the girls to enter in one group as that was now how the boss would be expecting them to arrive, but if they came with men of their own then that would be a little suspicious. The girls agreed and headed off in a chattering group for the entrance while the boys hung back in the alley for a few minutes and then followed.

Inside the club the air was filled with cigarette smoke, the smell of beer and a smell for vampires only, blood pulsing wildly through the veins of a pretty young tit bit. Spike eagerly looked around and it was clear that he was all too willing to get on with what he'd been instructed to do that night. Angel it appeared had other plans as he dragged Spike and Zev to a table near the wall where it was reasonably dark and they weren't likely to be bothered.

The crowd suddenly quieted to a certain extent, whispers went around among customers and staff alike. All eyes turned slowly to the stage (including Zev, Angel and Spike's) where a man in his early thirties was leading a small, blonde hooker with heavy eye make-up onto the stage.

Zev frowned, he knew that this was Bren but somehow, not the same Bren he'd been holding close to him only minutes before. She'd undergone an extremely quick change, Bren now seemed to be a real stripper, and not just Bren dressed up as one.

Realizing the man was talking Zev turned his attention on him, "You've missed this little pretty for three years now to all of my regulars but you'll still remember her, no doubt. It's our very own Bren Divino back on stage for your pleasure."

At this the crowd roared its approval and the man tied Bren's chain-link lead to the nearest pole. For a moment Bren just stood taking in the scene around her, then she turned to the sound box and called out to the man working the lights and the music.

A popular song blared from the speakers as Bren began her dance. Zev watched, entranced by her fluid movements, he was almost as taken by her as the first time he'd met her. Of course this time he wasn't a stuttering twelve year old standing in front of a girl with a feisty attitude.

Looking at her now Zev took in every inch of Bren's constantly moving body as she worked her way through the old yet familiar dance. Her golden hair flicked wildly about, the different coloured lights showing clearly against the pale colour. She really was a beauty that was clear as Zev tore his eyes away from Bren to look at the other strippers who were watching with different feelings on each of their faces. It didn't matter how beautiful all of them were, Bren was in a class on her own and that was clear.

The dance ended all too soon and the man once again made his way onto the stage to let Bren off her lead and down off the stage. Cheers and hoots of appreciation filled the large club as Bren made her way towards Zev, who was also making a beeline for her. By the time they managed to reach each other the cheers had subsided and life in the club had returned to its usual lively state.

"Did you like that?" Bren whispered gently in his ear.

"You were gorgeous, why are we whispering?" Zev replied.

"For effect," Bren said in a simple tone as she pulled away from him slightly, "So, how would you like to be my first customer? I can't stay with you too long but I could do with a test run to get rid of the dust."

Zev looked at her, smiled and nodded allowing Bren to take control.

--

That night Bren's group was the last to return to the hotel to tell the rest of the crew what their hours of questioning had resulted in. Sadly they couldn't tell their friends anything useful and as they found out when they came in, no one else had been any more successful. Seth and Clarissa seemed to be the only ones in high spirits when all of the 'evening news' as they called it had been passed around.

"Yeah I know that you're disappointed about having not found anything," Clarissa said to Kitty as they headed for their beds, "But it is better that you don't know anything than that you know too much and don't come home because of it."

"I suppose, but still," Kitty allowed her voice to trail off, it was frustrating to do such dirty work for a project like this and have absolutely nothing to show for it.

Clarissa smiled at her best friend and patted the strange girl's shoulder comfortingly, "I'm sure you'll find something, just be patient Kitty, good night."

Kitty looked up at Clarissa who stood a full three inches taller than her and smiled answering with the appropriate, "Good night Clarissa."


	5. A Success of Sorts

Disclaimer: Hello all! chappie 5, you know the deal by now. I don't own any of the Buffy or Angel characters and any demons that I put in probably belong to the genius, Joss Whedon. My OC's are in my bio if you want any info about them. Please R&R, reviews keep people like me from writing sucky stories. Happy reading! :)

Chapter 5: A Success of Sorts

The next day was spent lazing around their hotel room and preparing for another night of searching. It wasn't long before the more active members of the crew became restless.

The crew was spread out around the large apartment; some were in the lounge room and others in their own bedrooms or their friends bedrooms. Taft, Ena, Bren, Seth and Spike had taken over the lounge room and were lying on the various sofas and armchairs. Spike had brought a game boy with him and was now playing one of his many games while Taft attempted to look over his shoulder and not annoy him at the same time (a very tricky business). Ena was keeping a close eye on Bren as her twin sharpened one of her beloved knives, Ena knew Bren's habits of allowing her knives to slip from her hand to someone's head and she didn't think it was going to help their project if Bren accidentally hurt someone. Seth was going over Bren's stripper clothing and fitting it with hidden slits for her to put her knives in without making them noticeable.

Walking through the room on his way to the kitchen, Angel looked at the black haired boy and raised an eyebrow, "Having fun there?"

Seth looked up at him and made a face, Spike was the one who commented, "Bren's taken mate, you should know that. I'm waiting my turn maybe you should get in line and wait yours instead of showing off."

Bren looked at all three males and frowned, "You know I am right here and as much as I enjoy causing conflict I would appreciate it if you lot would keep your thoughts to yourselves."

Angel returned from the kitchen with his cup of cow blood and guzzled the lot much to Bren, Ena and Taft's disgust. The three of them looked at each other and made faces before returning to their previous pursuits. Bren finished sharpening her knife and took careful aim at the dart board she'd set up across the room where four other knives already stuck out making the target look slightly like a pin cushion.

Watching in fascination as Bren sent the knife flying at the number five on the board Angel remembered where they were, "Bren please refrain from doing that, if you miss we'll have to pay for the damage."

"Bren doesn't miss, ever," Ena said calmly from her seat next to Bren.

"Then why are you watching her so closely?" Angel asked the younger of the twins.

"Because she doesn't always stick to her target," Ena answered, a dangerously sharp edge to her voice.

Angel opened his mouth to return fire when Bren intervened, "Ena never mind, I'll stop throwing the knives around. That was the last one that needed sharpening anyway."

Ena slowly settled back on the sofa with a final death glare sent in Angel's direction as a warning for future debates. He looked at her, an unreadable expression on his face then returned to his room shaking his head and muttering about how difficult twins were and how they were always supporting each other.

Bren watched him go from her seat on the sofa, when he was safely in his room she turned and looked at her twin raising an eyebrow and looking thoroughly amused. Ena shrugged lazily and picked up a magazine, flipping easily through its pages until she found something of interest. Smiling to herself Bren retrieved her knives and examined them before putting each one into its sheath.

--

By nightfall Angel and Ena had finished their moody disagreement and were on friendly terms again. Everyone split up into the groups they'd been in the previous night and they set out again to continue the task of information gathering.

It was a disappointment to the group in the main strip club when their hours of work were unrewarded for the second night running. The girls had already managed to get into a routine of checking in with Pancho, setting about their nights work, as much as they disliked it, excusing themselves at a reasonable hour (for workers in a strip club that is) and then heading out to meet their male escort in the alley next to the club.

So every night for the rest of the week they followed this routine with little to show for their efforts. All that they'd gotten about Mara was that she occasionally made a visit to the club. Their one great achievement was that they found that Mara's daughter, Petula, Blaze's only full sister came in when it struck her fancy. Apart from this no one knew much more about the vampire attacks, most of the inhabitants of Nogales were quite happy to ignore the threat unless it threatened them.

It was on the first Friday night after the crew had arrived in Nogales that the effects of going in to the club on every night seemed to be taking their toll on Bren. Angel was impatient to go and see if they would actually make some progress tonight and Spike was impatient as always to get to the club.

"Bren would you bloody well hurry up," Spike yelled angrily down the hall, his disinterested attitude to so many things completely gone.

"Yes, just a minute," Bren answered in a tired voice.

"Spike," Darla said, just as he opened his mouth to yell again, "She's the only one out of us four girls not to have had a night off from going to the club."

"And your point is?" Spike with a flourish of his hand.

"Her point being that Bren's naturally going to be worn out," Kitty said calmly, coming to Darla's rescue, Darla may have been bold enough to stop Spike from yelling at her friend, but yelling at her was another matter.

"Why the hell would she be worn out, it's only a few hours a night," Spike didn't lower his voice one bit, refusing to follow Kitty's lead.

"Maybe it's not tiring for you mister wise guy but for us it is, all you have to do is ask pretty ladies sitting in your lap if they've heard any gossip about two particular women," Darla was angry at Spike's disrespect for her and her friends.

"Darla's right," Kitty said standing behind the ash blonde and adding height to her argument, "You get it easy, we're the ones who actually have to do something other than sit down to get answers."

"Oh? Would you kindly inform me exactly what it is that you do that demands such energy?" Spike said in mock politeness.

"That's enough," Angel interrupted, "Bren at this rate we'll be late, maybe you should stay here tonight."

"No, I'm perfectly fine," Bren said, finally emerging from her bedroom, "Just a little tired, that's all."

"So stay here and sleep if you're going to be this slow," Spike mumbled.

Angel turned to Spike with an angry look and Spike mumbled something about shutting up.

"If you're tired then I'm sure that your boss will understand you taking a night off, get a bit of rest and you can keep helping tomorrow night," Angel prompted.

"Yes but I don't want to take the night off," Bren said heatedly.

"Why not? We won't hold it against you," Angel said.

"You might not, but I would," Bren retorted.

This stopped Angel from arguing as he thought it over, he knew Bren well and had known her in her past lives also, if that was what you could call them. Each time she felt that she seemed to not be ageing enough then she would disappear to her beloved Cloud Realm for a while and then allow herself to be reborn again. She did this because she didn't want someone to start suspecting her for being something that she wasn't, namely a vampire as they were most commonly linked to unnaturally long lives. He realised with a jolt that he'd allowed his thoughts to wander and sharply brought them back to the present.

No, he couldn't stop Bren from coming to the strip club no matter how tired she was. The girl standing defiantly but worn-out in front of him would always find a way to do her will. It was her nature to do so just as much as it was the nature of a vampire to kill and mutilate. But looking at her Angel knew that if she came with them tonight then she wouldn't be much help to the crew when they needed her most.

"Bren you really should stay here tonight," he said speaking calmly to the seventeen year old standing before him.

"Angel I'm supposed to be on stage to night," Bren countered.

"Do you enjoy that so much that you can't miss it for one night?" Zev asked finally joining the argument.

"Zev I don't enjoy it and I don't mean to sound conceited but if I'm not there then you're going to lose at least half of your crowd," Bren said matter of factly.

Angel pursed his lips, thinking over his options, in the end it was Bren who found the best one, "Why don't I stay back here and rest up a bit and then come along later tonight when I'm not so tired? That way, you get plenty of people to question and I get a little extra sleep."

"I don't know," Angel said although it was the best solution.

"Nonsense, you know very well that if you leave me here I won't sleep a wink until you get home unless I can come along and help even for a little while," Bren said.

Angel sighed and looked at her, it was clear that she'd have none of it if he said no, "All right, you can come but Zev I want you to stay here and then you can escort her into the strip club and make sure she gets there safely."

"Yes Angel," said Zev easily as he turned to shoo Bren to her room so that she could rest for a while, "We'll come along on the bike in a few hours."

Angel nodded, "Take good care of her now or there'll be serious consequences."

Zev rolled his eyes, "You sound like a mother, of course I'll take good care of her, she's my girl friend remember?"

Angel smiled but he couldn't help noticing that Zev had said _**a** _mother and not referred to his own mother. It was a sad event when a boy couldn't relate something that his friends were doing or saying to an action of his own mother in order to make fun of them. At this point Angel stopped himself, realising that he was thinking like a teenager, or what he remembered to be teenaged thoughts.

/I need to find some older friends/ he thought as he left for the strip club /I went through that age once and once will do fine./

When Bren and Zev finally made their way into the strip club it was already ten thirty and the crowd in the club was getting impatient. Pancho hurried Bren to the stage and signalled for the music to start as the crowd roared approval.

Zev watched from his dark corner as Bren made her way through a familiar routine. He frowned as he looked closer, cocking his head to one side. Bren was different tonight; it was almost as if the chain weighed ten times her own weight, small as it was. She finished her dance and then simply stood and waited for Pancho to come and take the chain off instead of pacing up and down the stage like a caged wild animal as she usually did. She accepted a hand down off the stage from one of the very few male strippers who worked in the club; they talked for a moment before she went off in search of a customer. Zev followed Bren's movement through the night as much as he could, not wanting anything to happen to her and also worried because of her strange behaviour.

It was one in the morning when Angel found Zev and told him that it was time to go back to the apartment. Happy to be heading home to where Bren could actually get some proper rest Zev immediately made his way through the crowded club to where Bren could see him and motioned that it was time to go.

She pushed her way through the crowd and snaked long, delicate arms around him, putting on a show for anyone who might be watching. She knew that Pancho had noticed her leaving every night with the grey eyed, muscular youth and had asked her about it she'd simply winked a reply and giggled. But had been extra careful after that to make sure it seemed like she was leaving on business after that.

Now Zev turned and led her away through the crowd towards the green exit sign and the doors. They were only halfway there when Bren paused and looked wildly around her, any traces of sleepiness had left her as she searched the room to her left.

"Bren? What is it?" Zev asked, turning and coming to stand behind her, her breath was coming fast and he knew something had upset her, "What's wrong?"

Standing on her tip toes Bren bit her lower lip as she searched the room for the girl who she'd seen just a moment ago.

"Bren?" Zev repeated.

Bren looked at him and smiled, it was forced and Zev knew but Bren wouldn't worry him further, "It's nothing, I just thought that I saw someone I knew."

Zev seemed unsure if he should question her more about this but as Bren's lethargy returned he quickly decided that now was definitely not the time,

"If you're sure," He said and waited for her to nod before leading her out.

--

In the alley Angel pushed off from the wall where he'd been leaning casually so as not to attract attention.

He looked at both Bren and Zev before he asked, "What took you so long to get out?"

Zev opened his mouth to speak but Bren got there first, tired as she was, "Sorry, I thought I saw someone who might know where Mara was but when I stopped to look properly she wasn't there."

"Who did you think it was?" Angel asked.

"Just someone I once knew," Bren answered vaguely, "Are we going home or not, I'm really tired now."

Angel nodded and led the other six members of his group back to where the van and the bike where parked. They were only half way to the vehicles when they saw a dead hobo, mangled almost beyond recognising that he was human. Angel stopped and looked down at the man lying on the pavement, he looked absolutely disgusted at the hobo's condition. The others slowly made their way to check out the damage and possibly find out who he'd been. Spike approached the body but stayed just behind Angel, it was plain from the look on his face that the smell of blood was arousing the demon within, but Spike knew the consequences of him harming a human so he stayed behind Angel looking longingly down at the mutilated body.

Bren knelt beside the corpse and gently began the task of searching the hobo for any clues as to who he was or who had done this. Everyone present knew that it had been vampires but most of the Mexican vampires from around here left a mark to show who had done it. Like most vampires they liked to strike fear in the hearts of the weak little mortals that they shared the planet with. Carefully moving the torn clothing around so that she could see every mark left by the vampires Bren suddenly gasped and pulled back with surprising speed.

Spike had to pull out of her way to prevent her from colliding with him and then snarled. He let out his game face and was about to jump for her to make her pay when Angel grabbed the back of his jacket. Angel shook his head at the younger vampire and then proceeded to walk over to Bren who'd slammed full force into the brick wall behind her and was now pressing herself as close to it as she possibly could. Kitty and Darla frowned at Bren's odd behaviour and knelt to see what it was that had their friend so worked up. Lani snorted and looked quite disgusted at the reaction that Bren was having, in Lani's opinion this was just a corpse, they'd seen much worse and Bren was acting like a baby.

Zev frowned and bent so that his eyes were on the same level as Bren's, "Brenny? Are you okay? What was it?"

Bren's eyes never left the corpse as she shook her head, whimpering frantically. Her breath was coming in short, sharp gasps again and Zev, not knowing what else to do gently started shaking Bren's shoulders.

"Bren I want to help you, but I can't if you won't tell me what's wrong, I'm not a mind reader," Zev coaxed.

Bren took her eyes off the dead hobo for the first time since she'd started searching him and looked Zev in the eyes. He was shocked to see the haunted look in her sapphire eyes.

Angel, now crouching over the body and looking at the place Bren had been examining before her little bout of fear found a strange brand on a patch of skin that hadn't been mauled. There were two overlapping letters written in a calligraphy style but it was barely visible unless you looked closely.

"Zev," Angel said turning around and looking at the youth.

Reacting to his name, Zev turned to Angel, leaving his hand on Bren's shoulder, "What is it?"

"Come and look at this," Angel said, beckoning for the teenager to join him next to the corpse.

Zev seemed uncertain about going even those few metres away from Bren when she was this scared, but he couldn't look at what Angel had found and stay here with Bren at the same time. Spike provided the solution to this, shaking his head as he pushed Zev in Angel's direction and began attempting to calm Bren.

"What did you find?" Zev asked Angel as he came to stand beside the body.

"Take a look," Angel said, kneeling down and pulling away the torn clothing to reveal the brand on the dead man's skin.

Zev frowned, "MP what could that…" his voice trailed off as he realised something. He rushed back to Bren and took her by the shoulders looking into those frightened eyes, "Bren, did Mara arrange this? Is that Mara's brand?"

Bren looked even more scared at the sound of her step mother's name but she nodded a reply before she began to tremble uncontrollably.

Zev pried her away from the wall and put his arms around her, speaking as calmly as he could, "Sshhh, I won't let her hurt you, you're safe with us, don't worry."

"You don't understand," Bren said finally finding her voice, "Mara wants revenge and she won't stop until she has what she wants."

"Well we should get home Bren," Zev said calmly, "We are kind of vulnerable to attacks out here, we can talk about this at the hotel okay?"

Bren nodded and allowed Zev to turn her in the direction of the cars, she looked back at the body of the dead hobo sadly but turned her head around quickly and didn't look back again. The others looked at each other and shrugged, leaving the body where it was, knowing that he'd either be eaten by some stray or wild animal or someone would take pity on him and put him in some hole in the ground far away they left him to his sad fate.

Bren fell asleep in the car on the way to the hotel, her head resting on Zev's powerful chest, snuggled under his arm. When the car stopped Zev picked her up as if she were a five year old and allowed Kitty to open the car door to let him out. He smiled his thanks to the girl and fell into step beside her.

"Thanks for volunteering to go on the motorbike with Spike," Zev said as they walked slowly up the steps together, "I wouldn't've asked you to but Bren looked as if she was going to go to sleep no matter how scared she was and I didn't want Spike to work her into a tizz."

"You think Spike would do that?" Kitty asked looking playfully at the slightly older boy beside her.

Zev smiled, "Let's just say that I wouldn't put it past him."

There was silence for a few moments then Kitty asked, "So what was it on that poor man that made Bren so scared?"

Zev looked musingly at Kitty before he replied, "I think Angel will tell you in good time."

"But Zev," Kitty protested as she stopped.

Zev who had walked a few paces ahead stopped and turned to face the ginger haired girl being mindful not to raise his voice in case he woke Bren, "Look, Kitty it's not for me to tell you. Like I said Angel will tell you when he thinks it's the right time to tell you and no sooner. Until then I suggest you forget it because I won't be the one to tell you when Angel means to wait."

With that Zev continued up the stairs with his girlfriend held across his muscular chest. At the door of the hotel room Angel was waiting for Zev and Kitty. When both of them emerged from the stairwell Angel smiled and knocked on the door, signalling for the others to let Zev through first. They obeyed, allowing Zev to pass them, moving aside so as not to get in his way.

When Clarissa opened the door she let out a small squeak and pulled back to let Zev through, a look of complete and utter shock on her face as her hands flew up to cover her mouth.

Angel let everyone else through the door and then closed it after him, this done he turned to Clarissa and took a firm grip on her shoulders, "Ris, it's okay, Bren's fine."

Clarissa looked up into Angel's eyes, "But then why did Zev have to carry her like that? She didn't look fine to me."

"Trust me, she's just tired," Angel said calmly, "She fell asleep in the car on the way back here."

"Well anyway, why are you so late? It's two thirty in the morning," Clarissa said.

"I'll tell you in the morning when I tell everyone else," Angel said, "Are Blaze and Ena still awake?"

"Yes," Clarissa said, "Ena wouldn't go to sleep until Bren got back and Blaze decided to keep her company, they're in the kitchen."

"Thanks," Angel said as he headed for the kitchen.

As Clarissa had said, Blaze and Ena were in the kitchen, Blaze was leaning against the bench with his back to Angel and Ena was talking to him. They didn't notice Angel for a moment but when Ena turned to refill her mug with Milo she saw him and smiled. Angel did his best to return the smile and half managed, it appeared a little forced despite his efforts to make it seem real.

How could he do this? The three Divino siblings had been through so many problems over the last few years and he was about to tell them that there was more trouble with their family.

"Hey, where's Bren?" Ena asked.

"She's in bed," Angel replied, "She fell asleep in the car on the way here."

"Fair enough," Blaze said, "As long as she's alright."

"She's fine, she had a bit of a scare earlier but she's fine," Angel seemed uncomfortable on this topic.

"What do you mean, a bit of a scare?" Blaze asked, abruptly standing up off the bench.

"Maybe you should sit down," Angel suggested uneasily.

"What if I don't want to sit down?" Blaze said, his voice menacing as he began to advance on the burly vampire.

"You should at least back off, I need to talk to you about the project," Angel said.

"But I don't want to talk about the project," Blaze said, "I want to talk about why my sister was scared."

"If you would back off then I'll get to that," Angel said in a heated tone.

"Blaze," Ena said, "Sit down, Angel will explain why Bren got scared when he's finished talking about the project, I'm sure it won't take that long."

Blaze settled back against the bench and took a sip of his Milo not taking his eyes off Angel as he obeyed the younger of his two half sisters.

Angel explained to them about the dead hobo and how Bren had thought that she'd seen someone in the club who could've actually given them a lead on where Mara was. At this Blaze had allowed himself to look slightly interested and asked Angel who it had been. Angel replied that Bren hadn't told them and then continued more carefully to tell Ena and Blaze that it had been Mara who'd sent the vampires to attack the hobo and that this was why Bren had gotten scared.

When Angel had finished Blaze nodded his understanding but sank down against the kitchen bench, "You know what this means? I'm going to have to face my mother again, I don't know if I'm ready for that."

"Sorry to be the one to tell you Blaze," Angel said, "But I think you're going to have to, whether you're ready or not."

"Great," Blaze said sarcastically, "How I love this project."

Ena sighed, "You do know that we're going to have to be way more careful now don't you Angel? Mara is not a force to be taken lightly, this isn't something that we can have an easy time at. She's going to use all the fire power that she has."

"Then we'll have to fight fire with fire won't we?" Angel replied, "I want you two to go to bed, anyone who's still up will be in soon, I want everyone rested before we tackle Mara."

"Oooh," Ena said happily, "I love tackling."

Angel really did smile this time, "Go on, bed, now."

"Yes Mummy dear," Ena said as she heaved Blaze to his feet and pushed him out of the room.


	6. Una Pelea de la Familia

Disclaimer: you know how it goes, I don't own Angel or Spike, I only own the ones in my bio. Thanks to all who provided inspiration for this (you may not know that you did) and many many thanks to Tsukiroketto, Queen of the rants!  
Please to all who read this, I need to know that my story is being read a review would be much appreciated even if it's only a 'very good' or something like that. All reviews are appreciated! R&R! Enjoy!

Chapter 6: Una pelea de la familia (A fight of the family)

The next morning, Bren woke to an empty room full of beds that had been made hours ago. She dressed lazily and made her way out to the kitchen where breakfast waited. Bren was surprised when she entered the dining room to find every member of the crew present and looking as miserable as she felt remembering the events of last night.

"I see the voodoo dolls didn't work, any other ideas people?" Bren said making an attempt at brightening the mood, it wouldn't do to have this attitude when they were fighting Mara.

Only Spike smiled at the feeble joke which was quite out of character for him, this put Bren off as she sat down between her twin and Zev to eat her cereal. Angel looked across the table at her and she made sure that she didn't look tired anymore, a difficult task when her eyes were still bleary and her hair was all over the place. She didn't want to be kept back from anything that they might be doing over the next few days just because she still looked tired. Although she knew that they wouldn't be doing anything tonight it was a very big possibility that they would be seeing some action the night after. Seemingly satisfied that Bren wasn't too tired to do much when it was needed Angel returned to his previous task with Seth at the lap top. Bren relaxed and turned her attention to the bowl in front of her, struggling to fit even that small amount in her stomach with out making herself sick, that was the last thing that she needed right now.

An hour later and everyone was still sitting around the breakfast table and looking miserable. Bren had left briefly to fix her hair so that it wasn't in her face and knotty from sleep but she'd come back five minutes after leaving.

Looking around him Angel decided that it wouldn't do to have a crew with this attitude fighting Mara, she'd already have half won if they fought her like this. They needed something to take their minds off the project for a while, everyone had been working so hard this week that Angel was surprised they weren't dead from exhaustion.

"All of you go and get into your bikinis or boardies or what ever you wear swimming, you're going to the beach to have some fun," He said forcefully. "But Angel how could we possibly have fun when we know that some day or night soon we're going to have to face Mara?" Trixie asked, "She's as purely evil as a mortal can get and when you fight her the only rule she has is that there **are** no rules."

"I think that the whole point of the exercise is to take your mind off the project for a while," Spike said showing an amazing amount of insight as to what his vampirely grand sire had said.

Angel frowned at the younger vampire, surprised that Spike had known what he'd been thinking by saying that.

Spike shrugged, "I've been around you for what, 120, 130 years? I can't have gone that long in your annoying presence and not learn something about your sappy thoughts."

The non-vampire members of the crew smiled at Spike's explanation that was the Spike that they knew and occasionally found it in their hearts to be nice to. They usually didn't act friendly around Spike for a number of reasons, for one he was likely to toss them off the next bridge he found for being sissies, he would explain later that they'd needed to wash the stench off to be in his supreme presence. If this was anyone else this behaviour would have been considered weird but this wasn't someone else, it was Spike and no one could change that.

"So why are we sitting here if we're supposed to be at the beach?" Taft asked, "Shouldn't we be getting into our swimmers and heading down?"

"That's the spirit," Angel encouraged, standing up and beginning to shoo his young friends along, "Go on, I want all of you out on the beach and having fun before ten thirty that gives you half an hour, hurry now."

The crew left the table, some of them mumbling and grumbling in protest but they didn't want to disappoint Angel. He new their reasons for going and he was grateful to them for everything that they had done for him over the past few years, whether they'd been asked to or had done so without prompting.

Looking at Spike, Angel knew that he couldn't go down to the beach but he still wanted the younger vampire to relax a bit. He was just trying to think of a way to get him to do this without giving him a command that he knew Spike wouldn't obey when Spike provided a solution to the problem himself. He got up stretching his arms and flexing his shoulders, not bothering to excuse himself from the presence of his vampire grandsire he moved off to his room. He mumbled something about cat napping as an explanation to Angel's unvoiced question.

Shaking his head at Spike's understanding of so many of his thoughts Angel waited for the rest of his crew to leave before he himself went about some things he'd been meaning to do when he found enough quiet time.  
--  
Fifteen minutes later found Angel staring out of the side of the heavily curtained window at his friends gadding about on the beach. He had finished what tasks he'd thought he had to do and his mind had immediately returned to his friends, although he had sent them to the beach to get their minds off current problems assuring them that he would be fine, Angel didn't have anything to take his thoughts off the threat that Mara posed.

Instead of relaxing and also taking his mind away from their business here Angel was spending the time he'd set aside for relaxation worrying about his young friends. Thinking this over as he watched them playing in the morning sunshine Angel realised that some of them weren't really all that young.

Bren, Ena and Blaze had been his friends for most of his life, vampiric and human. Even then they had not been particularly young, but it was hard to tell age with Unipegs and their Riders. Of course those three weren't the only Unipegs that Angel knew, there was Clarissa and Lani among the girls of his crew and Nab and Seth made up the male contingent of Unipegs in his crew. He remembered with a sudden pang that there should be another Unipeg in his crew, Saxon, Bren and Ena's oldest brother and only full brother. Saxon had been the closest friend Angel had had over his many long years, through every up and down Saxon had been there beside him when he was needed. Remembering this and how the strong Unipeg had finally failed made Angel's mood worse, it hadn't been natural that his friend die of hypothermia. Although people died every day of the condition a Unipeg especially one of Saxon's age and strength didn't die of hypothermia, it was unnatural.

Since Saxon's death it hadn't only been him noticing the missing presence, Bren had noticed it even more so than her twin because the weight of taking care of her younger sibling had fallen on her small shoulders. He'd done his best to help her and so had Blaze but Bren wasn't one to happily accept help, such was her proud nature when it came to looking after her own kith and kin. Eventually she had allowed them to help her here and there but still making sure that the brunt of anything involving Ena fell on her, keeping in mind that her twin could make her own decisions just as well as Bren could. Naturally Ena had been affected by the death of her brother, he'd been her biggest role-model since her mother and father's deaths.

The hardest part about the loss of their only full brother had been that they'd only just managed to remember the basics of their first four years in their current lives. At that age, no returning Unipeg remembered anything about past lives in case they told someone who believed or knew that particular race was real. The fact that they'd allowed themselves to forget the brother who'd saved them from the fire that had killed their parents, this had stirred an inconsolable heartache.

Returning his mind to his friends on the beach Angel watched carefully, searching the area around them for anyone who might harm them. He had been watching them throwing sand and splashing each other for forty-five minutes when Spike returned from his cat-nap stretching out any muscles that had bunched and cramped during his sleep.

He was flexing his shoulder muscles when he noticed where his grand-sire was sitting, "Hypocrite," he mumbled as he retrieved a beer from the fridge.

Angel looked around at Spike and angrily retorted, "Well at least I care for the people I like to call friends, of course you wouldn't know what friends are, would you?"

"Sounds like somebody else should've taken a nap," Spike said mockingly, "You know how grumpy you get when you miss your midday nap."

"Good one Spike," Angel retorted sarcastically, "Now you must be tired from working your brain so hard, go back to bed until you're needed."

Shaking his head Spike joined Angel at the curtained window, "You worry too much, even for a close friend, you're going to hurt yourself like that someday big fella."

"Someone has to watch them you know, I didn't send them down there to get themselves killed by the bliss of ignorance," Angel said defensively.

"Of course you wouldn't, because you're responsible for them and if anything happens to them that'll be another black mark on your conscience."

"Spike," Angel said in a warning growl.

"Yeah, but seriously mate, in Sunnydale it was Buffy, it still is, you moved to LA for obvious reasons and to protect her," Spike looked at the older vampire, "Now it's that lot. Angel they can't all live forever and neither can we for that matter, someday some stupid bugger's going to stake us and that's it, we're gone in a poof of smelly dust. It was the same with all the other vampires we killed, stake to the heart and they're suddenly stinky ash."

"It doesn't mean that we give up on protecting them now Spike, they're still young, they have their whole lives ahead of them and I don't want some foolish woman to take that away from them."

"They can take care of themselves Angel, why do you think they've lasted this long in your line of work?"

Angel had to admit that Spike had a point but he continued to watch the rest of his crew just to be sure nothing was going to have him lose another crew member as he'd lost Saxon.

"Much as I like being immortal and all, I sometimes would like to spend a little time in the sun," Spike said from behind Angel, "It has an effect on a poet that gives inspiration."

"So that's why your poetry has gotten even worse since Dru turned you," Angel remarked with an evil grin.

"No, my poetry has gotten better since I became a vampire, it just lacks a little something here and there that it wouldn't be if I could walk in the sunshine like I used to," Spike said.

"Well inertia works in so many different circumstances, for every action there is an opposite reaction Spike," Angel said sagely, sounding like a wise grandfather, "You are now immortal but you can never go out in the sun and watch the sunrise as you feel the breeze wash over you. Every vampire has left something behind that in the end they'll miss so very much that they'll wish they could turn back time if only to feel it for a moment."

"So what did you leave behind?" Spike asked Angel.

"My life, my heartbeat and my sister," He said the last with a sort of wistfulness to his voice that stirred curiosity in Spike.

"Your sister?" He questioned the older vampire, "You had a sister?"

"Yes I had a sister, she died as all mortals do sometime," Something about the way Angel said that told Spike that this conversation was over but he was still wondering about this mysterious sister of Angel's. "Spike go and get dressed," Angel commanded.

"Why?"

"Because the youngsters are coming back up," Angel said calmly.

Looking out of the window Spike saw the fourteen other members of the crew slowly making their way back to the hotel and obeyed Angel, only returning when he had dressed himself in his favourite outfit, naturally it was completely black.

By the time he came back out of his room there were fourteen soggy teenagers standing in the kitchen and dining area with towels wrapped around them to keep them from dripping. Angel was standing talking to Blaze, Seth and Della, he looked up and noticed Spike standing and watching him. Della moved a little revealing that Angel's shirt was as damp and sodden as the teenagers around him.

"I thought you couldn't go down to the beach mate," Spike said in a voice of mock bewilderment.

"I can't," Angel replied, "But next time they go swimming you can open the door."

"I'd rather not," Spike said having put together enough that he could guess what had happened to Angel, "They can take a key next time."

Angel smiled a very secretive smile and returned to his conversation with the three teens standing before him, asking them if it was possible to find Mara by tonight or tomorrow night.

--

Despite their doubts, Seth and Della, being the seers of the crew had found where Mara was hiding and had pointed it out on an old map to Angel and their friends. Thankfully Angel told them that he didn't expect them to go and fight Mara that night but to be prepared for a big day tomorrow. They nodded their understanding and left to catch up on any missed sleep that they'd had that past week.

As he walked down the hall to the room that he shared with Taft, Nab, Zev and Seth, Blaze murmured, "So it begins."

"So what begins Blaze?" Taft asked in his strangely childish fashion, Seth looked at Blaze with a gentle look of comforting devotion, already knowing what the older boy meant.

"Una pelea de la familia, Taft, a fight of the family," Blaze said as he herded his friends into their room and shut the door to keep any light from the hall out so they could sleep peacefully, he knew they would need to.

"Blaze," Nab said in the darkness from his bed, "What's Mara like?"

"Go to sleep Nab," Blaze murmured after a brief pause, "You're gonna need it."

-Hope you enjoyed, the next chapter will be up soon.  
For those who didn't pick up on what Una pelea de la familia is it's a fight of the family.

Please R&R


	7. When the Smoke Clears

Disclaimer: You know how this goes, I don't own Angel, Spike or any other characters from Buffy or Angel yada yada yada! Hope you enjoy this chapter. Please R&R, I need to know that people are reading this!

Chapter 7: When the Smoke Clears

The next night the crew split up into three groups to search the abandoned warehouse that was Mara's base for operations just as theirs was their hotel apartment. Kitty, Taft, Clarissa, Nab and Seth were on the first floor while Trixie, Della, Darla, Lani, Asa and Blaze were on the top floor just above Angel's group, they would take the second floor of the warehouse.

--

The stairwell was pitch black as Angel, Spike, Zev, Ena and Bren made their way slowly up the stairs. Normally Angel would have insisted on taking the lead but in this case the twins were more experienced. Another fact was that even with the enhanced senses of a vampire, he and Spike were having difficulty seeing. Although Bren and Ena were leading their small group perfectly the going was slow as they were having just as much of a problem with seeing the next step as everyone else, they just knew what to expect better than the others.

When they reached the door that led out of the stairwell onto the main room of the second floor they paused to make sure everyone was present and accounted for. When they were sure that all the three males in their group were behind them they turned and Bren carefully opened the heavy door.

She warily stepped out holding Ena's hand in one of hers while her other hand rested on one of her many hidden throwing knives. Looking around she scanned all that she could see, finding no one Bren left the relative safety of the stairwell closely followed by Ena, Zev, Spike and Angel.

"She's on this floor somewhere," Ena whispered to her twin, "I can tell."

"I know," Bren replied, "We'll find her."

"Would it help if we flipped the light switch?" Zev asked in a slightly louder whisper.

Still looking around for any sign of life other than themselves Bren looked back at Angel and then nodded her blonde head. Spike turned on his booted heel and flipped the light switch, sending the lights of the large room into a feeble glow. In the dim light cast by the long unused incandescent lights on the ceiling the five companions searched the room for any sign that Mara was there. The only movement was the dust resettling itself about their feet in a thick carpet. Taking in their surroundings they noted the many doors leading out of the room, all of them shut.

"She's here alright," Angel muttered, "But behind which door?"

He looked around at the four members of his divided crew his eyes lingering on Spike, the younger vampire noticed, "Well don't look at me," He said in his usual bored tone, not bothering to keep his voice down, "My hearing and smelling are just as affected as my eyes, you should know that, yours are even worse."

Angel growled at this but returned to his search for an answer as to what they should do.

Looking uncertain Zev spoke in a hushed tone, "Should we check to see what's behind the doors? I mean, how else are we going to know who's behind them?"

"Good point," Angel said, his cheeks colouring a little at the fact that it was the simplest answer to their problem and he hadn't even thought about it, "But there's no knowing what's going to leap out from behind them."

"Well in the name of Ra why on earth are we all standing about when we could be checking doors," Ena hissed and set off cautiously towards the first door with Bren a step behind her.

They both paused in front of the large heavy door, then hesitantly Ena reached out a delicate hand, placing it on the handle and Bren put her bony shoulder to the door, pushing on it when Ena turned the knob. As soon as the door opened wide enough that the twins might be exposed to an attack from within they leapt back away hiding on either side of the door. Carefully they looked around the door frame to find the room empty of all but a large piece of strange machinery in the far corner. Spike gave a snort of laughter at the twins' behavior and shook his head.

Bren blushed and sheepishly bit her lip while Ena glared and shot a comment at him, "Better to be safe than sorry, especially when Mara's involved, her name means bitter and she lives up to it."

With that she and Bren moved on to the next door, treating it with the same caution as the first. They continued carefully opening doors around the room until there were only two left closed. Looking at each other they each went to a door and signalling a count down with their fingers, they leaned against the doors.

Three they tensed and looked back over their shoulders at the three males a few metres behind them, ready to charge forward at the first sign that the girls were in danger.

Two their hands moved to the door knobs, shaking slightly at the thought of what lay behind the doors.

One they twisted the knobs and charged into two seemly empty rooms.

Looking around the room that she was in, her sapphire eyes narrowed in suspicion Bren suddenly felt a wave of fearful realisation wash over her. She turned and madly raced out of the room, heading for Ena's doorway with a single yell, Ena turned and was about to retreat when the door slammed shut, blocking Bren out. Bren crashed into the door full force, immediately pulling back she began to frantically beat at the door to no avail. The door was just as much in one piece now as it had always been, angered further by this Bren began kicking madly at the door.

Still standing a few meters away Zev murmured, "I think we just found Mara."

"You don't say," Angel sighed as he took a step forward to where Bren had retreated and was now prowling like a caged lioness.

She paused mid step and raised her hand, sending a sapphire ball of brilliant light flying at the door. When this did nothing Bren held out one hand to keep Angel from getting in the way the other balled into a fist as she pulled it back across her chest, light growing beneath her balled fingers with every passing moment. Just as it seemed it would explode in her hand, Bren opened her palm and let the light fly towards the door, giving it a little extra help by pushing her hand after it. The light ball collided with the door, blasting it clean off its sturdy old hinges.

"Remind me to stay on your good side," Spike muttered to the girl as they rushed through the settling dust and small pieces of door into the room where Ena had disappeared.

Bren didn't pay attention to Spike's muttering as she emerged through the settling debris, the remains of the heavy metal door. Scanning the room wildly Bren frowned when she couldn't see her twin.

"Bren?" Angel asked, "Do you know where she is?"

Bren looked back at her unofficial leader a worried and bemused look in her frightened eyes, "I don't know where they are."

Suddenly loud, malevolent laughter filled the air all around them, Zev with his hearing still as good as that of a wolf yelped and sank to his knees.

Spike had been standing closest to the seventeen year old half god and now he walked purposefully over to the cringing boy and hauled him roughly to his feet, "We don't kneel for anyone," He said in a scolding tone, "You least of all, unless of course that talk about you being Dolf's first-born son is nothing but tittle-tattle."

Zev stared at the vampire for a moment and then nodded his understanding, "Not that I believe any of that codswallop," Spike added as an after thought.

The laughter died away although their tension remained, "Well looking on the bright side, at least we know she's still here," Angel said at last with mock cheer in his voice.

"That's not a bright side," Bren muttered in irritation, "There is no bright side where that lousy excuse of a mother is concerned." She raised her voice to be sure that Mara could hear her, "I know you're here so come out, I want my twin back."

"Now, now," The loud voice sounded again, it would have driven Zev to his knees again if Spike wasn't still holding his arm in a vice-like grip, "That's no way for a young Unipeg to be speaking to an elder."

"I give respect when it's earned and only when it's earned," Bren replied, "Come out and talk face to face instead of hiding behind cheap spells you cowardly chicken," Bren yelled.

"You dare call me a coward," The voice roared in anger, this time Spike had to let go of Zev's arm to cover his own ears cursing profusely as Zev sank to the floor howling in pain, "I am no coward."

"Empty words unless you show yourself," Bren said loudly, ignoring the noise her step-mother was making.

"Hey," Yelled a young voice from the end of the room, drawing all eyes upon her, "That's my mother you're talking about."

"Petula, I told you to sit this out," Said the voice this time a body appeared to tone with it.

A woman in her late forties appeared turned side on to the four people standing just inside the ruins of the doorway. She began speaking in a slightly irritated tone to a girl who looked to be about nineteen and nothing special as far as looks went. The thing that caught their attention was Bren's struggling twin, fighting in vain to free herself of Mara's grip.

Bren growled angrily and took two quick steps forward before Mara turned crossly to face her and the three males of her group, "Not another step missy moo," She said menacingly as she raised a knife to Ena's throat, pulling the little girl's head back by her black hair, "Or her throat gets split."

Bren stopped immediately and glowered at the woman smiling pleasantly at her from only a few metres away. Despite the amiable smile on her step-mother's face Bren felt no warmth coming from her, only menace.

"Now I could give you back your twin if I wanted to, I could also kill her," Mara said in a conversational voice as Bren began to grind her teeth in frustration, "But that's too easy, it doesn't suit my purposes at all."

"What do you want from us Mara?" Bren asked opening her arms wide in a dramatic gesture, "Money, you can have all that's in my bank account, you want amusement? I can find you that too. Just give me back my twin."

Mara gave a little mocking gasp, "Brenda dear, so protective, I had no idea you were so passionate about your family."

"Mara," Bren said, growling and moodily lowering her head slightly.

"What? Your question?" Mara said still mocking the girl, "My dear girl I don't want money, now amusement maybe but nothing you could find me would be as amusing as this. No, I want you to learn a lesson that you missed long ago."

"So take me and leave Ena be," Bren said imploringly, "She's no where near as stubborn as I am, or as feisty."

"Bren," Spike exclaimed from behind her, "I didn't know you wer….."

"Not now Spike," Bren said, cutting him off mid-sentence.

"True," Mara said after thinking for a moment, Ena swallowed hard looking at Bren with eyes that were scared and yet told her twin that she didn't have to do what she was about to do.

"So let her go," Bren said in a low tone full of warning, hiding her true emotions.

Mara looked the little blonde up and down, "How am I to know that you're not tricking me? You could be luring me into a trap. I know you always have weapons on you, you never go anywhere without at least three weapons."

"This is true," Bren said calmly, "I could be tricking you and luring you into a trap, so you could send Petula there off to your little magic man to get a truth potion or you could send her over here to get my knives, all of them."

Zev, who until this moment had been watching the delicate dance of the two females verbal fighting in front of him suddenly cried aloud, "Bren no, don't."

"Zev be quiet," Bren said, her voice quivering slightly as the nineteen year old Bren had called Petula approached her and began to remove each and every one of Bren's prized knives.

They fell to the floor with hollow thuds and landed in small clouds of dust where they remained, "Let Ena go," Bren said, her voice commanding so that even if Mara had been planning to keep Ena she couldn't have.

"Bren don't do this," Zev said as Mara slowly released Bren's twin, "Don't do this, you don't have to."

He made to step forward pulling at a weapon on his belt but Petula, holding the last of Bren's knives unsheathed one and held it against Bren's throat, "Nice try to save your girlfriend but it's not worth it, she'd be dead before you took three steps, it's advisable to put that weapon of yours away."

"Sounds like you might have hurt your brain Petula," Bren said, her head pulled as far away from the sharp edge of her knife as she could get it, " But don't go to such trouble just for him, he'll understand if you speak in your native language."

The older girl snarled and pressed the knife closer to Bren's throat, Bren pushed it away with an easy movement, looking bored at the thought of Petula trying to fight her. Mara had freed Ena and the girl passed her twin on her way back to the others, gazing at her sister with her light eyes, filled with sad memory and terror. Bren knew that now was her last chance to turn back as Ena paused at her side.

From behind them Zev called out brokenly, as he sank to his knees, "Bren don't, it's not too late, please," his voice cracked as he struggled to stop tears from trickling from his eyes, he was pleading openly now, "Please."

Bren turned and looked sadly back at him with eyes that said so many things, but the most noticeable look in her eyes was the one that said sorry as she turned and allowed Petula to bind her hands together. The older and larger girl pulled her over to where Mara stood and released Bren's bound hands from one of hers as Mara placed one of her hands on Bren's bony fore-arm. Looking down at the floor, Bren suddenly looked back up at Zev and her twin, a look of the greatest love she could ever show in her eyes.

"Good bye," She murmured, and with that all three disappeared in a puff of greeny-black smoke.

--

When the smoke had cleared and the four companions could see clearly again there was no trace of where Mara had gone. Angel stood looking on dumbly at where Bren had stood just moments ago, now an empty space filled only with darkness and air. Spike had narrowed his eyes and was searching every inch of the room for any sign of the young girl and her captors, he found nothing.

"Thought you didn't like little weaklings like us," Ena mumbled wearily.

"I don't," Spike said in answer, "But she wasn't so bad, neither are you I mean but…" His voice trailed off and then returned, "She's not that bad to talk to, at least she could keep a relatively intelligent conversation going for ten minutes."

"Then she's ten times as good as you Spike," Angel said, the irritation showing in his voice, not all of it was for Spike.

Zev wandered over to where Bren had stood and gathered up her assortment of knives, putting them carefully into his pockets he said with hollow recognition, "She's gone."

Ena, having heard Zev's muttering came to stand behind him looking down at her sister's small footprints in the dust, following them to where they ended, where she had disappeared, "Just like that."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Hi to anyone who reads these disclaimers, as you should know by now sadly I do NOT own Angel or any of the other wonderful characters created by the genius- Joss Whedon. I do however own the characters described on my page (just click on the blue link to cutepony for those who don't know what to do). This chapter was partly inspired by the second Lord of the Rings movie, so out of politeness, thank you Peter Jackson.

Chapter 8: A day for beginning

Ena woke up late the next morning and left her room to find most of the people from her crew spread out around the living room. The TV was blaring away and she winced at the loud noise and scanned the faces of everyone around her, they were all serious and some of them had the look of one who is in some far away place, or wishing they were.

She new how they felt, she wanted two things, to have her twin back and to be a million miles away from here where Mara couldn't hurt or even find them. The young girl approached the curtained window and peeped around the edge of the curtains looking down at the beach just across the road from the hotel apartment she was currently in. Four figures stood slightly away from the other people who were slowly filling up the small beach. Ena knew who they were and what they were doing.

Della and Taft stood knee deep in the frothing ocean water, Taft with his arms around her as if they were just a young couple staring out at the sea and enjoying the breeze. That wasn't the case, Ena knew that Della's eyes were shut and her mind was searching every nook and cranny of land and sky, Ena knew that Della was searching as far away as her magic could reach.

The other two people were Seth and Asa, by all appearances it looked as if they were sunbaking, taking advantage of the Mexican beach and sun. Asa, indeed would be taking advantage of that but at the same time he was making sure no one disturbed Seth as he did the same as Della. Seth was searching as hard as he could for Bren, and Ena knew that he wouldn't stop searching until he had either found her or he couldn't search any further.

Ena stepped away from the window and looked around at her friends and half-brother, they hadn't moved apart from to shift positions in their chairs or stretch a cramping muscle. Zev appeared to be the only one capable of doing anything else, he had currently achieved the status of the most active in the room. Not a difficult task at the moment but he was at least doing something, even if it was only running his finger around the rim of his empty glass as he stared into it.

Ena shook her head at all of them and began to clear away their dirty dishes from breakfast. No one reacted much to Ena's busy behaviour, they noticed it and would acknowledge her with a grunt or a mumble but no one actually managed to form words.

Once Ena had finished collecting, washing, drying and putting away the dishes she once again surveyed the room and people around her. Her friends didn't seem to be livening up at all and she doubted that one of them was going to find their vocal chords any time soon. She turned her full attention to the room, it wasn't very dirty or messy, in fact it was almost spotless but she had to do something so she set about occupying herself until the four on the beach returned.

By the time that Seth, Della, Taft and Asa returned from their beach trip it was a miracle that Ena hadn't cleaned the room away. Seth and Della looked a little worse for wear from their efforts but they wouldn't make their crew wait any longer.

The moment that they entered the room the whole crew seemed to suddenly be a in a rush to be doing something. Even Spike bothered to do something, although it was only getting Della and Seth each a drink of water it was the thought that counted and from Spike it meant a lot.

Once everyone was finished fussing over Della and Seth they once again settled down to wait for their friends to tell them what they had found during their search. Everyone except for Ena who continued fussing over anything she could find to be fussed about. When she stopped to look for another thing to busy herself with Seth reached out and took her hands, stopping her from wringing the skin off them.

"Sit down," He said in a gentle voice as he pulled her carefully down onto the couch next to him, "I need to be sure that you're okay about all this and I need to know if it all sounds right or if something's missing. You would know best of all of us if something doesn't fit."

Ena pursed her lips and looked meekly down at her lap where she carefully folded her hands as Seth let them go, she nodded her understanding, "So tell me," she murmured.

Seth looked across at Angel who looked at him expectantly, Seth looked at Blaze and then began, "I didn't exactly find much, there was something but it was blocked off from my magic by something else, it was magic but I couldn't break through that barrier. With enough time I might be able to but I couldn't have done that down there on the beach with so many distractions. I did see that Bren hasn't left the general area of that warehouse but every time I tried to find more than that," Seth stopped and shook his head. "I do know that Bren hasn't left that street or the streets around it for about five blocks either way."

Angel nodded, "Anything else?"

Seth nodded and looked down, "Ena's dream last night was right, there was definitely a hurt Unipeg there and Bren's the only one in that area."

"You're sure that it's not just that another Unipeg has come from the Cloud Realm and crash landed?" Trixie asked.

"As much as I would love to prove Seth wrong in that area," Lani said moodily from her armchair, "The elders in the Cloud Realm know that there's already enough Unipegs and their Riders in this area to take care of this planet, they won't send anymore down unless we call for them."

"No one called for any help did they?" Clarissa asked from where she sat on the coffee table.

All of the Unipegs and Riders present shook their heads in answer.

"What about Bren?" Asa asked cautiously.

Ena's head snapped angrily around to face him as an angry fire erupted in her light eyes, "Bren would never do something like that, not even if it cost her life," Ena said sternly.

Asa sank back into his seat, unnerved by Ena's sudden flare of fury, he'd never once gotten on the wrong side of her before and now that he had he really wished that he hadn't.

"Ena he didn't mean to say that to offend Bren," Nab said calmly as he placed his hand on her shoulder, "He was just looking into all possibilities."

The girl looked back down at her hands and nodded, all traces of the fiery anger of a moment ago completely gone, replaced by the meek, submissive, lost girl, mirroring how Bren had appeared the night before.

Angel let everyone digest what they had just heard and seen before he turned to Della, "Find anything more?"

"Not much," Della replied, "Bren was definitely in that area like Seth said, there were also vampires surrounding her. There was quite a variety, all ages and strengths, there were a few possessing knowledge of magic and the ability to use it."

"How many vampires?" Angel asked, "And how many knew how to use magic?"

Della cocked her head in thought, "No less than a hundred vamps maybe two hundred and among them say about five, ten vamps tops can use magic. They've got magical barriers up all over the place protecting it from nosy passers-by or anyone like us trying to find a missing person. This explains why neither Seth nor I could find anything other than these few morsels to go by."

Angel nodded and looked around him assessing each of his companions, he didn't doubt their strength or their courage for a minute but he couldn't let them do anything around Mara at any worse than their best. The next few days would be a test on their abilities and he didn't want any of them to crack under the pressure. He knew somehow that no matter what he had to get Bren back, she had some part to play yet that no other could and Earth needed her to survive. But he also knew that the planet would need all of his crew to keep it safe from the regular apocalypses to which the majority of the planet's population remained completely oblivious.

One by one the members of his crew looked at him, when it came to the decision of what to do, that fell on his shoulders. Angel looked over at Spike and realised that even his defiantly rebellious vampiric grandson was looking at him for the verdict.

Sighing Angel scanned the expectant faces, "Relax, check your weapons, Della and Seth I want both of you to go get some rest, I'll think this over and when I've figured out what to do then I'll tell you."

The crew dispersed and retreated to their preferred areas of the apartment, all except for Spike who stayed in his seat looking straight ahead at the glass top of the coffee table. Angel leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees and putting his head in his hands.

There was silence for a while as both vampires mulled over the events since they'd left the hotel yesterday afternoon.

Eventually Angel broke the silence, "Of all people to get taken hostage I wouldn't have expected it to be Bren, she was so careful when it came to Mara."

"Well no one is perfect, with the possible exception of me," Spike said eyes still locked on the coffee table, "She had to slip up sometime, only thing is that she chose the wrong time to do that."

"That wasn't a slip up, she did that because she loves Ena enough to not want her to have to go through whatever torment that she knew was coming," Angel said, quietly angry.

"Maybe she's been around humans for too long," Spike suggested.

"What do you mean?" Angel asked in annoyance.

"The joys of love made her human and the agonies of love destroyed her," Spike said, "I heard that somewhere and thought it was a load of bull but maybe it has some truth in this case."

"Care to explain?" Angel asked wearily.

"The first part, relevant because she loved Ena so much that in a humanly action she would sacrifice herself, bringing about the second part, Mara will destroy her for giving in to that weakness that her love for Ena made," Spike said in a simple as that tone.

Angel shook his head, it made sense but he couldn't let Mara slowly kill the best chance this world had at surviving, "She still has a very big part to play in saving this world, I can't leave her to be killed, I can't let Mara kill any part of her."

"So what are you going to do about it?" Spike asked.

"We have to get her back, but first we have to find exactly where she is," Angel stopped, frowning, "Della said that there was some sort of barrier blocking her magic so if she and Seth can find a way around it then we can find Bren and start on the rescuing."

"How are they supposed to find a way around it? They're two teenagers, well actually a teenager and a Unipeg who is in all probability older than your age added to mine, but still there's two of them and Della said that there could be ten vampire mages with Mara," Spike stated matter-of-factly.

"Maybe if they merge their power and Della uses the sea again then their combined power will be enough to break through the barrier," Angel said, with that he got up and went to find the two to ask them about the idea.

"Angel," Spike said sharply just as the older vampire was about to leave the room, "What if it doesn't work and they can't break through the barrier? What then?"

"Then we find another way to get to Bren," Angel said quietly before he left the room.

Later that afternoon Seth and Della returned to the beach to test Angel's theory that maybe if they couldn't get through the barrier on their own then they might be able to break through together. Both of them had warned Angel that it might not work and not to be too disappointed if it didn't work out.

Angel watched from a slit in the curtains as the two of them casually made their way across the road and down to the sea, acting like a pair of carefree teenagers. Indeed if they didn't know so much about the bad things in this world then they would be carefree, things would have been a lot different for Angel if the younger members of his crew hadn't found out about the demon's occupying the planet.

Angel kept a close eye on Seth and Della as they dumped their towels on the beach and made their way down to the water. They splashed around for a while so that to any watching them it would just seem that they were two teenagers enjoying their youth and freedom. When they got tired of doing that Angel watched as they stopped and held hands, looking out to sea and watching the afternoon glow on the water. They weren't really focusing on the water, Angel knew that their sight as well as their magic was far away trying to break through the barrier that kept them from pin pointing exactly where Bren was.

Watching them and the area around them Angel didn't move from his seat until he saw them make their way back up the beach towards their towels. He found Asa and brought the young healing mage into the living room to wait for Seth and Della to get back.

Angel waited patiently while Asa made sure that both Seth and Della hadn't overdone anything. When he was done checking them over, Asa pulled Angel aside.

"Any problems?" Angel asked the youth.

"Seth's fine, from what I can tell he hardly broke a sweat, he put in much more of his power than Della did but it hasn't troubled him," Asa replied, "Della on the other hand may have put in too much strength. Not being a Unipeg or related in any way to a divine being she doesn't have Seth's power and control. I think that if you want anyone to do anymore searches by way of magic then let Seth, he can take much more of a magical beating than what that barrier could ever give him."

"Okay," Angel said, "But it's still all right if I ask her questions isn't it? It's not going to put her under any excessive stress?"

Asa chuckled good naturedly, "No, just as long as she doesn't over do it with her magic then she'll be fine," Asa turned to go back to his room but then turned back again, "Oh and no fights for her for a few days, but it'll probably take us that long to find Bren."

Angel nodded grimly, "I wish it were sooner, I don't like knowing that she's in pain and not being able to do anything about it."

"I know," Asa said, "But you can trust Seth to find a way around any problem, that barrier won't stop him for long, especially when it means so much to Blaze."

Angel smiled at Asa's optimism and then returned to Della and Seth, questioning Seth more than Della about what had happened. Nothing had changed, the two of them hadn't been able to break through the barrier even with their power merged. After Angel asked whether Seth could put anymore power into breaking through the barrier Seth lost his temper and Asa came half running out of his room to see what had gotten his friend so worked up.

"What's up Seth?" Asa asked from the mouth of the hallway, "Calm down and tell me what's wrong."

"He wants me to use more power to see if that can break through the barrier, that's what's wrong," Seth replied.

Asa looked at Seth, one eyebrow slightly raised, "All right, sit down, calm down and tell me what the trouble with that is?"

Della answered the question for him when Seth merely continued to pace the room, "Seth has a heck of a lot of power, and he only uses it in small amounts for a reason. If he lets too much of that power loose to break that barrier then he could damage a lot of the buildings around it and it could hurt him to use that much of his power. To do something like that Seth would have to let his magic take over, at least to a certain extent, but unleashing that much power? There's no guarantee that he's going to be able to harness it again."

"You mean he could lose control?" Angel asked steadily.

"Pretty much," Della said, "I don't have enough power that it could cause serious damage if I lost control but Seth? Being the son of a battle goddess as well as a Rider, that amplifies what power he has."

"See Angel," Seth said, having gained control of his temper again, "It's not that I don't want to find Bren but sacrificing possibly everyone in Nogales? She'd understand why I said no."

No one said anything for a long time, then Angel spoke, thinking aloud as much as speaking to those around him, "So we've tried going round the barrier and through the barrier, what about over the barrier?"

"Tried that this morning," Seth said sounding depressed.

"So how else can we find Bren with that barrier there?" Angel mused.

"Angel?" Blaze asked from the hallway.

"What is it?" Angel snapped, sounding annoyed at the interruption of his thinking.

"Angel," Blaze started again, "Ris, Darla and I were thinking about the whole barrier problem."

"You're not the only ones," Asa assured them.

Blaze smiled in his direction before continuing, "Angel it may sound a little on the loco side of things but seeing as we can't go around, over or through the barrier then why don't we try driving Seth or Della inside the barrier and then getting them to try to find Bren. It's a mighty big long shot but, it could work, I think."

"Well at the moment I'm open to suggestions, crazy or not," Angel said with a wry smile, "I guess it's worth a try."

"Then I'll go," Seth said, "Della, I think you might need a bit more than a nights rest to be well enough to use your magic again, no offence meant."

"None taken," Della said, shaking her blue hair out of its pony tail, "I could do with a little extra nap time anyway, now speaking of naps, good night all."

A chorus of good nights followed Della out of the room.

"Seth my dear Rider," Blaze said in a more cheery tone to the one he'd adopted since his Bren had been taken, "I am thinking that it would be a good idea for you to also have a little siesta. You want to be well rested tomorrow when you try searching with your magic again, can't have you running dry on the power part can we?"

"No Mummy," Seth replied cheekily, "I'm going; don't hurt yourself worrying so much."

"I won't," Blaze said as he affectionately ruffled Seth's black hair, "I'll see you in the morning."

"Are you sure that you're not gay?" Spike asked as he entered the room.

"No Spike I'm gay as the fab five and I've had my eye on you for many years," Blaze said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Spike gave him a strange look, the best that Blaze could make of it was disgust but there was something else there that wasn't revolted by Blaze's words. Blaze shook his head and stopped trying to figure Spike's behaviour, he'd known Spike for years before his days as a vampire began but he still didn't understand his ways at all. Spike headed straight for the kitchen and helped himself to a cup of the cow's blood that was kept in the fridge at all times for him and Angel.

Angel watched the younger vampire closely as Spike drained the cup, put it in the sink, gave it a very quick rinse and returned to his room. Once Spike had left Asa bade everyone present good night and disappeared into the darkness of the hall leaving Angel and Blaze alone in the room.

"Sorry about being so snappish at you when you came in," Angel said to Blaze, "It's just that I hate being powerless to help Bren and…"

As Angel trailed off Blaze looked up at his friend, "Angel it's all right, everyone's getting snappier, we all want to find Bren or something along those lines and get her back, we also want to get Mara out of the picture. It's unnerving to know that someone so ruthless and malevolent, so uncaring is on the loose as it is without knowing that she holds one of our own captive."

Angel nodded, not looking at Blaze, he knew the look what he would see in the boy's eyes. His feelings conflicted so much, his half sister, his leader in battle was being held hostage by his earthly mother, the one who'd raised him and re-shown him the dangers of this world. He knew deep down what had to be done but he wasn't sure if he wanted to do it, or could do it.

Blaze spoke again, breaking the silence that had grown between the two ancient beings, "Angel I would like to go with Seth tomorrow, as protection, I don't doubt that if he had all his strength gathered together and focused on one thing then he would be perfectly capable of caring for himself. But he will have his attention on finding Bren and so will be made vulnerable, he's my Rider and therefore my responsibility. If anything should happen to him then…well let's just hope nothing more does happen."

This time Angel did look into Blaze's eyes, he could see the determination in them, the desperate need to keep the rest of his loved ones safe, there would be no point denying him, he was just asking first to give an idea of what he was willing to do.

Angel nodded his consent to Blaze's wish, he gave a tight smile to his friend, it concealed none of his feelings of worry for each and every member of his crew. Seth and Blaze, having been partnered for life long ago were each others responsibility, the same went for all of the other Unipegs and their Riders. But in the same instance, they were his responsibility, as long as he took them on these missions with him he was responsible for what ever happened to them. It was a heavy task and one that Angel took very seriously.

His thoughts were once again interrupted by Blaze, except this time he wasn't speaking aloud, his voice was in Angel's head, his hand resting on the vampire's shoulder.

"_Angel, you do not have to bear this burden of yours alone," His voice said calmly, "All of your crew members from the Cloud Realm are here to help you in your appointed task. We're not only here to protect the children of the Gods and Goddesses."_

"It's not your burden to bear Blaze," Angel said aloud, "It's mine as long as I lead you."

"_No it isn't Angel," Blaze's mind spoke again, "Your burden is to protect this world and fulfil the prophecy, not to nurse 16 teenagers and one Spike. Let us worry for ourselves, you worry about the task that you have been appointed."_

"It's not that simple Blaze," Angel said, "I can't forget that it was me who got us into this."

"_It wasn't you who got us into this Angel, we chose to follow you," Blaze reminded him, "We will follow you willingly to whatever end we may meet. Even if you had gotten us into this, you need not worry about getting us out, that we are perfectly capable of doing ourselves."_

"Blaze…" Angel began again but was cut off by the firmness of Blaze's mind voice.

"_Angel we can take care of ourselves, worry about yourself for once, it would only take one stake to your heart and then the prophecy won't be fulfilled ever, the only worry for us that you need burden yourself with is that we are still by your side, now and always," Blaze finished, breaking the mind link he'd created._

Blaze then raised his hand in a sign of fare well, in this case good night, leaving Angel to ponder over his words of wisdom.


End file.
